


lower case

by helsinkibaby



Category: NCIS: Los Angeles
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Future Fic, Pregnancy, background ship, partners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:15:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29662329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Callen surprises Sam on a Saturday morning. In more ways than one.
Relationships: G Callen & Sam Hanna, G Callen/Nell Jones
Kudos: 20
Collections: 1 Million Words' A to Z Challenge





	lower case

**Author's Note:**

> For the a-z challenge, letter G

“Permission to come aboard.” 

Sam didn’t even try to hide his smirk as he turned to see Callen standing on the dock. “Nice to see you finally learned some manners,” he said. Then, with a tilt of his head and a wave of his hand, he continued, “Permission granted.” 

Callen grinned and stepped on deck, even as Sam pointed an index finger at him. “Unless you’re here to tell me we caught a case. In which case, you best get to stepping.” 

“No case, I swear.” Callen held up his hands. Sam mustn’t have looked like he believed him because Callen laughed. “What, a guy can’t stop by to see his partner on the weekend?” 

It was a fair point but one that didn’t go far enough. “Your weekend visits have been few and far between since you and Nell tied the knot,” Sam pointed out. Callen pressed his lips together, his right hand playing with his wedding ring, a rare enough sight since he didn’t tend to wear it while on the job. “Don’t tell me she’s kicked you out already.” 

He was teasing and Callen knew it. For that matter, Sam had seen Callen when he and Nell were on the outs, and this wasn’t that. He was way too relaxed, even smiling. Which in and of itself was rare. “Nothing like that. I just wanted to stop by.”

Except he shifted on his feet as he spoke. 

Callen never shifted on his feet as he spoke. 

In fact the last time Sam had seen him do that, he was gearing up to tell Sam that he’d just proposed to Nell. The time before that, it was because they’d just got together. 

Suffice to say, Sam was suddenly on high alert. 

“Okay then.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “You want a beer, or...?”

“Well, I do have a ulterior motive.” 

“Of course you do.” 

Callen was reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket. “Nell and I wanted to give you this.” 

He was holding a white, letter sized envelope in his hand, no writing on the outside. He held it out to Sam who took it, instantly cataloguing the weight and feel of it. “You surprising me with Rams tickets.?” he quipped and Callen chuckled, rubbing his hand over his lips. 

“Not so much.” He jerked his chin in the direction of the envelope. “Open it.” 

Curious now, Sam ran a finger under the flap, pulling out a folded sheet of paper. “It’s too thin to be retirement papers...” He shook the paper out and frowned, not understanding. There was no writing on the sheet, save for one letter in a font so big that it took up most of the page. Nell’s fingerprints were definitely all over this. Looking back to Callen, he shook his head. “I don’t get it.” 

Callen’s face was perfectly inscrutable. “What is it?”

“It’s a letter. Did you hit your head on the way over here? Does Nell have a dent in her frying pan?” 

A grin flashed across Callen’s face, quickly pushed down. “What kind of letter?”

Sam looked down at the paper again. “It’s a lower case G,” he said and as if saying the words had unleashed a memory, it slammed into him. About six years ago, maybe seven, whenever Callen had had the thing with Joelle that they all really preferred not to remember, the team sitting at their desks the morning just before a case was announced, talking about kids, Callen dropping a bomb that had shocked them all...

Sam’s head snapped up. “No.” 

Callen’s grin was suddenly ear to ear, wider than Sam had ever seen it. 

“For real?” 

Callen nodded, still grinning. “Twelve weeks today,” he confirmed and Sam wasn’t standing across the deck from him any longer, he was in front of him, giving him a hug that lifted him off his feet. 

When he set him back down again, he put both hands on Callen’s shoulders, shook his head. “Congratulations, G, I mean it... c’mon, we are definitely getting that beer... gotta wet the baby’s head.” 

He led Callen downstairs where he pulled two beers out, handed one across and raised his own. “To lower case Gs,” he said and Callen’s grin grew wider, something he would have said wasn’t possible. 

“To lower case Gs.”


End file.
